1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gear mechanisms and blade drive devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are wide varieties of mechanisms which transmit a drive force from a motor or an engine to another member and which employ plural gears. When the gear is employed as a drive transmitting mechanism, there may be a problem with an operation noise on the basis of backlash between gears meshing each other. Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 53-122576 discloses a gear having at least one gear element and an elastic member jointed to the gear element, and an outer edge of the elastic member slightly projecting from that of the gear element. When such a gear is employed in the drive transmitting mechanism, the operation noise may be reduced, because the elastic member absorbs the impact caused by meshing the opposite gear therewith.
However, the operation noise according to the backlash of the gears may be needed to be further reduced depending on a product employing such gears. The same demand applies to, for example, a blade drive device employed in an optical device such as a camera.